Monday, July 31, 2006

from ap/yahoo: The Bush administration may have badly miscalculated in insisting that any Mideast cease-fire be tied to long-term objectives. As the toll on Lebanese civilians has soared, even moderate Arab governments have turned into U.S. critics, and Hezbollah's support has climbed across the region...

"I think we made a huge mistake by giving Israel a blank check," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution. "Hezbollah, after six years of relative restraint and working inside a coalition government, is accused of kidnapping a grand total of two people. A good case could be made for not doing anything."

Bush's unnuanced support for Israel — backed by unusual allies, some congressional Democrats — is becoming an increasingly tough sell for the United States as it presses for a comprehensive package before the U.N. Security Council.

from 1010wins: New Jersey will begin a week long drill Sunday to test how well five specialty labs detect bio terrorism agents and how quickly and accurately the state can transmit health-related information during a terror attack...

In an actual terrorist attack, specimens would be taken from patients arriving at emergency rooms and tested in the hospital lab. Those labs would be the first to spot suspicious samples or identify a possible biologic link...

The biological agent that will be used in the upcoming drill was not disclosed.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

from latimes: U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court...

According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."

Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.

from prisonplanet: Esteemed depleted uranium expert Dr. Doug Rokke is pointing the finger at Israel for using deadly and illegal depleted uranium munitions against the Lebanese people which were sold to them by the U.S. government - and calls for an immediate halt to the practice.

Dr. Doug Rokke's military career spanned four decades before he was appointed as the head of the US Army's investigative team into the assessment and teaching of the dangers of depleted uranium.

"It's catastrophic, the US Army briefing the Pentagon leaders prior to Gulf War II in 2002 flat out acknowledged all of the problems yet they disregard them and say that they don't exist in public."

Following the bombing of Afghanistan a scientific study by British scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan concluded that high levels of depleted uranium had contaminated Europe, having drifted on air currents from the Middle East and Central Asia.

from nytimes: The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead or administrative costs, according to the audit, written by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office that reports to Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Tonight at 8, C-Span will air the American Scholars Symposium: 9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda. You can watch it online by clicking here. This will be one of the most important things you could ever see on television. Tell your friends, family, MySpace-heads, & post links on blogs & message boards. We've got to reach people who still don't know about the cover-up pertaining to 9/11.

from propaganda matrix: A decision that many of us were waiting on with baited breath - C-Span's scheduling of the American Scholars Symposium highlights - infuses the 9/11 truth movement with a fresh injection of credibility and exposure to more mainstream audiences.

The panel features incredible presentations by 9/11 Scholars for Truth founder James Fetzer, BYU Physics Professor Steven Jones, President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret., Filmmaker and Radio Broadcaster Alex Jones, and Terrorism Expert Webster Tarpley.

C-Span viewers will witness what many consider to be the most hard hitting conference to date including the most professional and credible speakers ever assembled.

Friday, July 28, 2006

please enjoy this hat trick of protests from the last few days... first up, we have a protest on wednesday morning.

from thinkprogress: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s address to a joint session of Congress was interrupted by a protestor, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink. Benjamin shouted, “Iraqis want the troops to leave. Bring them home now.” According to a January poll, 87 percent of Iraqis support a U.S. timetable for withdrawal. The Iraqi President, Vice President, and National Security Adviser have all advocated a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 52 percent of the American people want a withdrawal within 12 months.next up, we have a protester disrupting the confirmation hearing of the scumbag known as john bolton...

from thinkprogress: Sixty percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. The widespread discontent is popping up at high-profile political events... [Thursday], a protester disrupted U.N. Ambassador John Bolton’s confirmation hearing.

and finally, we have a silent dissenter whose actions speak louder than words...

from youtube: After the Judiciary Committee Justice Dept. Oversight Hearing on Tuesday, a protestor wearing an orange jumpsuit and black veil stood before the adjourning committee with a sign that read 'Close Guantanamo'.sorry, this video has been been removed...

Thursday, July 27, 2006

from nytimes: Oliver Stone, that symbol of everything about Hollywood that conservatives love to hate, is getting help in marketing his newest movie from an unlikely ally: the publicity firm that helped devise the Swift boat campaign attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam record in the 2004 presidential race...

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the conservative Media Research Center and founder of the Parents Television Council — best known for its campaigns against indecency on television and for stiffer penalties on broadcasters — called it “a masterpiece” and sent an e-mail message to 400,000 people saying, “Go see this film.”

Cal Thomas, the syndicated columnist, wrote last Thursday that it was “one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-faith, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see.”

Mr. Stone, for his part, has insisted in the past that the film is “not a political movie,” while acknowledging in a recent interview that this “mantra” had been handed to him by his employers.

from la weekly: Remember when the Bush Administration was ramping up the invasion of Iraq a few years ago? We were going to remove the dictator, shut down the (nonexistent) WMDs, install a new democracy, and, soon, we were told, a sirocco of freedom would sweep the region. And the road to finally solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would run right through Baghdad.

As death squads run rampant through Iraq, as Israeli warplanes bombard Lebanon and Gaza, as Hezbollah rockets rain down on Haifa and we hold our breath hoping we are not already immersed in World War III, I guess you could say the Bush administration’s strategic plan has failed...

The Bush administration has given carte blanche to the Israeli action, confirming all of the most paranoid fears of the Arab street. Ehud Olmert’s government really does seem to be itching to take the war into Syria and Iran, and George W. Bush seems only too happy to do the back scratching.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

from cnn: With upraised right hand and left hand on the Bible, each of our presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, has solemnly sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States.

The American Bar Association claims President Bush has violated that oath by issuing hundreds of "signing statements" to disregard selected provisions of the laws that Congress passed and he signed.

A bipartisan, 11-member panel of the ABA found that President Bush is not only disregarding laws but using such signing statements far more than any president in history. In fact, Bush has used signing statements to raise constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws. All of the presidents combined before 2001 had issued only 600.

The ABA asserts that signing statements cannot be a substitute for a presidential veto and that such an assertion of presidential power amounts to a line-item veto, which the Supreme Court already has ruled unconstitutional.

from jerusalem post: Invoking a scene from the film Schindler's List, one of Norway's largest newspapers recently published a political cartoon comparing Prime Minster Ehud Olmert to the infamous commander of a Nazi death camp who indiscriminately murdered Jews by firing at them at random from his balcony.

The caricature by political cartoonist Finn Graff appeared on July 10 in the Oslo daily Dagbladet. It has prompted outrage among the country's small Jewish community and led the Simon Wiesenthal Center to submit a protest to the Norwegian government.

In the cartoon, Olmert is likened to SS Major Amon Goeth, the infamous commandant of the Plaszow death camp outside of Krakow, Poland, who was convicted of mass murder in 1946 and hanged for his crimes.

from world net daily: After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America.

The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.

from information clearinghouse: In the last few days, Nafeez Ahmed learned from a credible and informed source that a former senior Labour government Minister, who continues to be well-connected to British military and security officials, confirms that Britain and the United States "will go to war with Iran before the end of the year."

As we now know from similar reporting prior to the invasion of Iraq, it's quite possible that the war planning may indeed change repeatedly, and the war may again be postponed. In any case, it's worth noting that the information from a former Labour Minister corroborates expert analyses suggesting that Israel, with US and British support, is deliberately escalating the cycle of retaliation to legitimize the imminent targeting of Iran before year's end.

Let us remind ourselves, for instance, of US Vice President Cheney's assertions recorded on MSNBC over a year ago. He described Iran as being "right at the top of the list" of "rogue states". He continued:

"One of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked... Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."

from editor and publisher: Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.

"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

from denver 7 news: You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Totalitarianism: Absolutistic dominion through imposing the force of one power over others through armed violence; fascistic dictatorship. A regime based on subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all coercive measures such as censorship and state terrorism. The political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority.

from arctic beacon: The corrupt Federal Reserve Board is now standing in the way of 4.5 trillion in repatriated offshore funds earmarked for the U.S. Treasury in what is now being called in worldwide financial circles as the Wanta Plan.

An agreement was reached June 12 between U.S. authorities and Wanta, the legal trustor of more than 27.5 trillion in lost or stolen U.S . assets from the Cold War era, to return 4.5 trillion of the looted money by the Bush and Clinton crime families, less money for taxes and other related expenses.

However, the Arctic Beacon, one of the only news outlets in the country covering the hush-hush story, has learned the Federal Reserve Board has acknowledged the Wanta settlement and is now without sufficient public justification, blocking the return of the money which could turn the bewildered American economy around overnight.

from raw story: On Fox News Sunday, Paul Gigot, Editorial Page Director for the Wall Street Journal, indicated his support for rushing U.S. more missiles to Israel. Gigot argued that precise targeting abilities of U.S. missiles would reduce the number of civilian casualties.

After implying that accelerated delivery of U.S. missiles to Israel is a humanitarian action, Juan Williams remarked that powerful "bunker buster" bombs were being shipped to Israel. Gigot exclaimed, "Thank God, for the 'Bunker Busters'."

JUAN WILLIAMS: ...but the [Arab] people, the people, are angry at Israel and the United States and see this as a one-sided deal. The U.S. speeding delivery of more military munitions, more F-15's. U.S. made fighter jets, bombing away at Lebanon. How do you imagine that won't result in animosity and generations of people who are just furious.

PAUL GIGOT: So you're furious because we're sending target weapons, these smart weapons that can explicitly...

WILLIAMS: Oh, have you seen the pictures [of Lebanon], Paul?

GIGOT: Look, it's a very difficult situation. The smart weapons actually do less damage. We ought to speed more weapons over there because it will do less damage to civilians.

WILLIAMS: I think the weapons they are speeding over there are those 'bunker busters.'

GIGOT: Thank God for the 'bunker busters' because they are able to get to people 100 feet down.

from raw story: In her latest column, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd blasts the "air-guitar diplomacy" practiced by Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in regards to the conflict in Lebanon, RAW STORY has found.

"The more W. and his tough, by-any-means-necessary superbabe have tried to tame the Middle East, the more inflamed the Middle East has become," writes Dowd.

"Now the secretary of state is leaving, reluctantly and belatedly, to do some shuttle diplomacy that entails little diplomacy and no shuttling," Dowd continues. "It's more like air-guitar diplomacy."

Saturday, July 22, 2006

from brass check: Artist Brian Springer spent a year scouring the airwaves with a satellite dish grabbing back channel news feeds not intended for public consumption. The result of his research is SPIN, one of the most insightful films ever made about the mechanics of how television is used as a tool of social control to distort and limit the American public's perception of reality.

Take the time to watch it from beginning to end and you'll never look at TV reporting the same again. Tell your friends about it. This extraordinary film released in the early 1990s is almost completely unknown. Hopefully, the Internet will change that.

from google video: Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings ... all of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, SPIN is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality.

Friday, July 21, 2006

from counterpunch: As the tv networks give unlimited airtime to Israel’s apologists, the message rolls out that no nation, least of all Israel, can permit bombardment or armed incursion across its borders without retaliation.

The guiding rule in this tsunami of drivel is that the viewers should be denied the slightest access to any historical context, or indeed to anything that happened prior to June 28, which was when the capture of an Israeli soldier and the killing of two others by Hamas hit the headlines, followed soon thereafter by an attack by a unit of Hezbollah’s fighters.

Memory is supposed to stop in its tracks at June 28, 2006.

Let’s go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15.

Back we go again to June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nine innocent Palestinians.

Now we’re really in the dark ages, reaching far, far back to June 9, 2006, when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing 8 civilians and injuring 32.

That’s just a brief trip down Memory Lane, and we trip over the bodies of twenty dead and forty-seven wounded, all of them Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Israel regrets… But no! Israel doesn’t regret in the least. Most of the time it doesn’t even bother to pretend to regret. It says, "We reserve the right to slaughter Palestinians whenever we want. We reserve the right to assassinate their leaders, crush their homes, steal their water, tear out their olive groves, and when they try to resist we call them terrorists intent on wrecking the ‘peace process’".

Thursday, July 20, 2006

from boston globe: Reinstate the military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.

Imagine if all our sons and daughters were at risk for deployment to the desert. Imagine if all our children faced the Al Qaeda-style butchery that took the lives of two American soldiers, Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker of Madras, Oregon, and Private First Class Kristian Menchaca of Houston, Texas.

If we feared our children were next up to be gutted like fish, we might be less likely to shake our heads at crazy antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. If turning 18 meant your kid's boots on the ground, a resolution to pull troops out of Iraq by a certain date might grab more than six votes in the US Senate.

A key difference between Iraq and Vietnam is the country's ability to keep this war at a convenient distance. We can turn from the front page headlines of war, death, and destruction to sports and celebrity gossip; a click of the remote, and the face of a young soldier, now dead, fades to "Friends" reruns or "America's Next Top Model." The volunteer army ensures that someone else's children are losing limbs and dying; someone else's children are pushed to alleged acts of violence against Iraqi detainees and civilians. Even when the news from Iraq is so brutal it forces a momentary focus on war, quick relief is promised.

from infowars: Daniel Ellsberg is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national firestorm in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, the US military's account of activities during the Vietnam War, to The New York Times. The release awakened the American people to a systematic program of organized deception carried out by the Pentagon against the population to continue the Vietnam War.

Daniel Ellsberg, speaking on air to GCN radio host Jack Blood, stated his concerns that criminal elements of the US government were psychologically capable to have carried out 9/11. He warned that within days after a US military strike on Iran that Bush's handlers would probably stage some type of terror attack in the West to legitimize the new war.

"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country."

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

from guardian: The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

from prison planet: The escalating Israeli assault on Lebanon clearly represents a conscious bid to provoke a general war in the Middle East. The captured Israeli soldiers are only the pretext for the present massive military operations...

False flag scenarios would be entirely more effective from the point of view of the war planners. CNN and MSNBC coverage... has been stressing the situation of the 25,000 Americans now stuck in Lebanon. These Americans are being invited to register with the US consulates for possible evacuation. The State Department and the US military have been remarkably slow to begin such an evacuation.

One possible provocation scenario to bring the US into the war is that a helicopter carrying US citizens being evacuated out of Lebanon is hit by a missile and destroyed, killing all on board. The missile might be fired by the Israelis or by their allies among the fascist Lebanese Phalangists. The Israelis would announce that the helicopter had been destroyed by Hezbollah, opening the way for a hysterical campaign by Fox News and the rest of the neocon mass brainwashing apparatus to secure an early US attack on Syria and Iran.

An alternative: a group of Arabic-speaking Israeli Mossad or Shin Beth special forces, or a group of Phalangist militia round up a few dozen Americans and machine-gun them to death. The controlled media then blame the massacre on Hezbolllah, thus stampeding the US population into war.

Monday, July 17, 2006

from haaretz: Like every important event, the war in Lebanon has already given us a large variety of spin-words and banal political clichés. It comes from Israel, Lebanon and the international community. A leader usually throws an expression into the air that the ordinary citizen will pick up and relay to every passing TV camera.

As long as it takes: Usually means as long as the U.S. administration allows it to happen. In the current crisis the Americans are sensing there's a genuine opportunity to weaken Hezbollah. They will feel obligated to intervene sooner rather than later in one of two cases: Heavier price in human life on the Lebanese side; or growing outcry coming from important allies in the international community.

The right to self defense: No country or leader will deny the right of every man for self defense. Of course Israel has the right to self defense. The question, argued by Israel's critics, is whether the actions in Lebanon can be considered an act of self defense. But hey, who are we kidding here? We all know the real meaning of this expression, don't we? It means "you can keep bombing until we say otherwise."

from raw story: Various news agencies are reporting that what US President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair thought was a private conversation has accidentally been broadcast at the G8 conference.

The exchange illustrates the close relationship between the two leaders. It also catches Bush, at a time when the FCC is reportedly pouring over tapes of live newscasts for profanity, dropping an angry expletive into an open mic...

The much-reported expletive came when conversation turned to the situation in Lebanon and Israel. "You see," said the President. "The ironic thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

Saturday, July 15, 2006

if you've never watched alex ansary's "outside the box," you're missing one of portland's best truth-seekers. on his webpage & especially on his weekly portland community media television show, ansary "breaks through the waves of propaganda that's systematically beamed into our minds."

from haaretz: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that U.S. backing of Israel is responsible for flaming tensions in the Middle East and putting the world on course toward another "Holocaust."

"The fundamental blame falls again on the U.S. empire. It's the empire that armed and supported the abuses of the Israeli elite, which has invaded, abused and defied the United Nations for a long time," Chavez said in a speech during a military act in Caracas.

"I'll seize this opportunity to condemn categorically and fully the aggression that the Israeli elite is carrying out against innocents over there in the Middle East," he said.

Chavez was referring to a new explosion of Mideast violence this week as Israel Air Force war planes began striking Lebanon after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others Wednesday in a cross-border raid into Israel. In response, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel.

The Venezuelan leader charged that Israel is using excessive force.

"Are we going to bomb cities and tell them that we won't stop bombing until they return the soldier? That's crazy," he said.

"Worse, it's craziness with nuclear bombs. (The Israelis) have their weapons of mass destruction and nobody criticizes them, nobody says anything because the empire is behind them," Chavez said.

Blaming the escalation on Washington's undue influence, Chavez said: "The U.S. empire's desire to dominate has no limits and that could take this world to a real Holocaust. May God save us."

Friday, July 14, 2006

from lew rockwell: As of today, the War Department lists 2544 as the number of murdered troops in Iraq. Dozens of innocent Iraqis are being killed due to this war crime every day. More than 80 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad alone on July 9th: dozens of people just in one city on one day who would be alive if not for BushCo...

Between WWI and WWII, Marine Major General Smedley Butler wrote a short dissertation called War Is a Racket... The first two paragraphs succinctly define the entire booklet and the reason not to allow your child to fall into the hands of the military-industrial-war complex:

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In his treatise Butler goes on to define the "damned" war profiteers of his day: the DuPont family, the steel companies, the leather companies, the t-shirt manufacturers, etc. The profits for these companies increased at a minimum ten-fold in the WWI years and in retrospect even seem like healthy profits in 2006 dollars. He also complains about the 6000 buckboards for the colonels, thousands of saddles for the cavalry, and hundreds of airplane engines that were never used in the war. The waste of money and the waste of life in war are horrendous and inherently immoral – always!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

the late bill hicks always wondered why there weren't positive drug stories on the news, like:

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration... that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

well bill, here ya go...

from abc news: "Magic mushrooms," used by Native Americans and hippies to alter consciousness, appear to have similar mystical effects on many people, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

More than 60 percent of volunteers given capsules of psilocybin derived from mushrooms said they had a "full mystical experience."

"Many of the volunteers in our study reported, in one way or another, a direct, personal experience of the "beyond," said Roland Griffiths, a professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Behavioral Biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who led the study.

A third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes. Many likened it to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.

And the effects lingered.

Two months after getting the drug, 79 percent of the volunteers said they felt a moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction, according to the report published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

from forbes: Volunteers who tried the hallucinogenic ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms during a controlled study funded by the U.S. government had "mystical" experiences, and many of them still felt unusually happy months later.

The aims of the Johns Hopkins researchers were simple: to explore the neurological mechanisms and effects of the compound, as well as its potential as a therapeutic agent.

Although psilocybin -- the hallucinogenic agent in the Psilocybe family of mushrooms -- first gained notoriety more than 40 years ago, it has rarely been studied because of the controversy surrounding its use.

This latest finding, which sprang from a rigorously designed trial, moves the hallucinogen's effect closer to the hazy border separating hard science and religious mysticism.

"More than 60 percent of the volunteers reported effects of their psilocybin session that met the criteria for a 'full mystical experience' as measured by well-established psychological scales," said lead researcher Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of neuroscience, psychiatry and behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

What's more, most of the 36 adult participants -- none of whom had taken psilocybin before -- counted their experience while under the influence of the drug as "among the most meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives," Griffiths said. Most said they became better, kinder, happier people in the weeks after the psilocybin session -- a fact corroborated by family and friends.

The researchers also noted no permanent brain damage or negative long-term effects stemming from use of psilocybin.

huh? you mean natural things growing from the earth are good for us? that they shouldn't be illegal? well once again, mr. hicks knew the answer to that question:

"Actually, I'm against drugs being legalized, and this is why. Last weekend, my friend and I went into a farm, took some mushrooms, and we sat on a field. I looked up into the sky and saw God. He told me that there is nothing to fear, that he loves every single creature on this planet, and he showered gifts of forgiveness and love onto the Earth, and I realised that there was nothing to fear, and I loved everything ... Now, if that isn't a bad thing for this country, I don't know what is. How can we continue to make weapons if we love everything?"

Monday, July 10, 2006

Sunday, July 09, 2006

from arctic beacon: They probably don't stand a 'snow ball's chance in hell,' but that isn't stopping a group of citizens in Iceland from filing criminal charges against former President George H. W. Bush.

Doing what Americans should have done long ago, Icelandic citizens file charges with the State's Police Chief, accusing former President Bush for participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and crimes against internationally protected persons.

The charges were filed July 4 on Independence Day and coincide with a visit by Bush on July 7 to Iceland, being an invited guest of the host country's President Olafur R. Grimsson.

Many critics of Bush in America re saying a silent prayer the "charges stick" as the foreign criminal charges filed illustrate just how many abroad hold the Bush family in contempt for their criminal acts and acts of imperialistic aggression, resulting in the death of untold millions.

from counterpunch: George Bush just celebrated his 60th birthday, and in his rare free moments, it would be natural for him to begin to consider how--and where--he'll spend his time after leaving office. He seems to enjoy the ranch in Texas, and will of course be involved in setting up his presidential library, and work on behalf of his favorite charities.

As a former president, there will of course be many invitations to travel and speak on a wide variety of subjectsand that is where my advice comes in. Bush should bag the foreign travel...

... he will not know where and in which of these places charges may have been filed... by family members of people who were flown on un-marked dull, grey-painted planes to remote airports to be tortured or "disappeared"... or family of men, women and children who were summarily executed by soldiers in places like Haditha, Bakuba or Mahmoudia... or relatives of civilians whose bodies were lost in the flattened rubble of downtown Falluja.

Indeed, some of the questions which French judges wanted to ask of Henry Kissinger in Paris in 2001 had involved the secret, high-altitude carpet bombings of Cambodian towns and villages during the Vietnam War.

No, former President Bush would be wise to stay home in Texas in his retirement. It is highly unlikely that he would face imprisonment in his own country, as did General Pinochet. George Bush should enjoy the barbeque, and ride his horses through the mesquite. Maybe invite former Vice-President Cheney down to the ranch for some hunting.

from all headline news: The American Civil Liberties Union sues the U.S. Secret Service and state and local police for allegedly using discriminatory practices during a 2004 campaign event for President Bush.

The class-action suit claims law enforcement protecting Mr. Bush used unreasonable force to clear about 200 protestors from the area.

The ACLU contents the Secret Service ordered police to move people peacefully protesting against the Iraq war, while permitting pro-Bush demonstrators to remain on the sidewalks.

David Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon ACLU, tells The Associated Press, "Our primary motive is to prevent this kind of activity from happening again in the future."

Shelly Elkovich, a protest organizer, tells the AP the group made sure to inform police the demonstration would be safe. She says they were told everything would be okay if they stayed on the sidewalks.

Instead, about 40 police officers in riot gear removed the protestors from the sidewalks.

The ACLU is asking the court to grant an injunction barring the Secret Service and police from discriminating against protesters in the future.

It also seeks monetary damages for demonstrators who were injured, and as well as punitive damages.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

from propaganda matrix: By now we know the drill - pardon the pun. 'Al-Qaeda' only chooses to release its video productions at the most politically expedient times to maximize the benefits enjoyed from them by the Bush and Blair administrations.

The schedule is so scripted, timed and orderly that Brian Ross at ABC News now reports days in advance when a new tape is about to be released.

Therefore it was no surprise to learn of the Shehzad Tanweer video, released to coincide with the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London.

Blair has been on the ropes for months fiercely resisting the call for an inquiry into 7/7, even one headed by an establishment shill like Hutton, what better time to have a convenient voice from the grave prop up the government's crumbling version of events and in the process validate the occupation of Iraq?

Is the Tanweer video for real or a mock-up created by 10-year-old special effects that enabled us to see Forrest Gump shake hands with President Kennedy?

In a sense it doesn't matter because even the Metropolitan Police admit that the alleged bombers were dupes set up by someone else and didn't know they were about to die. The videos could have been filmed under the proviso that the role players were just acting out another scene in the script of their MI5 training exercise - after all, the ringleader Mohammed Siddique Khan was on the payroll of British Intelligence.

from raw story: The 4th man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme - in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race - will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney...

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

another important lou dobbs clips pulled...finally, after jerome corsi's articles shed light on the secretive SPP agreement & the forthcoming north american union, lou dobbs gives even more attention to the end of america as we know it...

from nytimes: The CIA has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the CIA Counterterrorist Center...

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

from homeland stupidity: The United Nations Small Arms Review Conference began Monday and will go through July 7. The National Rifle Association has said that the UN intends to eliminate private ownership of firearms. But, responding to over 100,000 letters of complaint, secretary-general Kofi Annan said: “Let me also note that this Review Conference is not negotiating a ‘global gun ban,’ nor do we wish to deny law-abiding citizens their right to bear arms in accordance with their national laws.”

What’s really going on?

from cnn/netscape: Americans mistakenly worried the United Nations is plotting to take away their guns on July 4 -- U.S. Independence Day -- are flooding the world body with angry letters and postcards, the chairman of a U.N. conference on the illegal small arms trade said on Wednesday.

"I myself have received over 100,000 letters from the U.S. public, criticizing me personally, saying, 'You are having this conference on the 4th of July, you are not going to get our guns on that day,"' said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's U.N. ambassador.

"That is a total misconception as far as we are concerned," Kariyawasam told reporters ahead of the two-week meeting opening on Monday.

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